Friendship cant save you

Twilight slowly woke up, holding her head and looking around. She saw her friends were all in this strange room with her. Rarity was looking around, Applejack was pacing, Fluttershy was cowering with Rainbow Dash holding her, and Pinkie Pie was standing beside Twilight.

“Hey, I’m glad you’re ok.”
Pinkie spoke up, helping Twilight to her hooves, which caught the attention of the others.

“Wh- Where are we?”
Twilight asked, holding her head and looking around the room.

The room was in the shape of a circle, with the floor being made out of some kind of polished stone panels. The walls were made of concrete that seem to have been chiselled out like a grid. Along the round wall, was a door, but when Twilight tried the door, it was locked tight.
She tried to use her magic, but her horn fizzled out weakly, sparking like a live wire.

“I already tried that I'm afraid…” Rarity spoke up, upon seeing Twilight try her magic, which only made Twilight more worried.

The wall also had a single window, exactly opposite the door, and within the room on the other side of the window, was Princess Cadence.
She looked very guilty, as she looked over what looked like a board with different coloured buttons on them.
As well as a simple seat to sit in. There was a shelf under the window, on Cadence's side that had a singular, button activated microphone.
“Cadence?! Where are we?! What is going on?! Why doesn't our magic work?!” Twilight asked, her ears folding back and her wings poofing up in fear.

Cadence pressed the button on the mic, and her voice echoed through the room on a set of speakers, secured to the upper side of the wall.
“This… This is your final test.”
Cadence began.
“Your final test, to prove if you are truly ready to rule over Canterlot. Every Alicorn goes through this test, and I unfortunately can't stop it.”

Final test? ‘Unfortunately’? What did she mean?!
Twilight looked at her friends, and they also looked nervous, with Applejack egging Twilight on to keep asking questions, get as much information as they can get.

“W-what test… What test involves my friends?” Twilight asks, looking concerned as to why the others were in the room with her, if this was HER test.

“Well, your final test consists of 5 games. And you need to have more than 1 pony to play each game. All the advice I can give is, that you shouldn't focus on your bond, and focus on winning. Don't worry about how close you are as friends, and focus on the end goal.”
Cadence explained, taking her hoof off of the mic’s button, letting the 6 ponies talk it over.

“Games?” Applejack asks after a few moments of silence. “What kinda games is she talkin’ about? How would this be ya final test to make you ready to be royalty?”
Applejack looked around at the others, before Rainbow spoke up

“You have a point, there has to be something more to this than just games. Otherwise we wouldn't be in this room.”
Rainbow theories, looking around the room once more from where she stood.
Fluttershy and Rarity nodded in agreement, looking at each other, looking rather worried.

“It could be so we don't get distracted!”
Pinkie explains, a wide smile on her face.

“Who knows! Maybe this is just for fun! One last chance to hang out as friends before we need to get on with our duties! Like Applejack’s farm! Or rarity’s business. Or our brand new, official princess taking the throooooone!”
Pinkie sung that last part of her sentence, smiling wide and wrapping her front hooves around Twilight tightly, causing the 6 friends to relax a bit, chuckling softly between themselves.

“You do have a point.”
Fluttershy finally spoke up.
“With all these big changes going on in our lives, like my sanctuary, or Rainbow Dash being part of the Wonderbolts, or Pinkie continuing her business as a party planner, we don't know when we’ll next, all have free time to see each other. Maybe Pinkie’s right, this could just be a way for us all to spend time together before we get too busy.”

The 6 ponies all nodded in agreement, their smiles returning to their faces once more.
They all began conversing between themselves about what they were planning to do once this was over. Looking pretty hopeful that this was just an odd situation that would allow them to potentially make one last memory together.

After about 10 minutes, Cadence spoke up again on the mic, grabbing their attention.

“It's time for your first game. It's called Hot Potato. I'm sure you all know how to play, but if you don't, let me explain. You will be given a ball, As the timer counts down, you will need to pass the ball to each other, making sure you’re not the one holding it when the timer reaches zero. When the timer reaches zero, the one holding the ball will be the loser, and you’ll be out of the games.”
Cadence explains, and the 6 ponies look at eachother, looking a bit excited to begin the first game.

After a moment, a panel in the ceiling opens up, dropping a light, metal ball, into Applejack’s front hooves, with a small timer on the ball, counting down from 2 minutes.
“Heheh, heads up Twilight!”
Applejack called out, before gently throwing the ball to the purple alicorn.
Twilight managed to catch it, before passing it to fluttershy, who passed it to Pinkie, Then Rainbow, then Rarity, and back to Applejack.

As the game went on, the ponies managed to find more interesting ways to pass the ball to each other.
With Applejack doing a volleyball-style pass to Twilight.
Twilight throws it at different strengths.
Fluttershy would fly up at different heights and drop it to Rainbow Dash, who would catch it on her nose and balance it for a moment, before headbutting it to Rarity, who would bounce it off of her rump to Applejack.

As the game went on, the room began to fill with laughter, as they all were enjoying themselves, finding more unique ways to send the ball into flight.
Soon, the ball let out a loud ding, signalling the end of the clock, and when the ball chimed time’s up, the ball had ended up in Rarity’s hooves.

The 6 ponies all laughed to themselves, clapping loudly at how fun the game was.
“See! I told you it’d be f–!”

Pinkie Pie’s speech was cut off by a loud bang, that made all the ponies flinch in shock and stop in their tracks.
They heard a soft whimper, coming from their left, and Twilight slowly looked over, Seeing Rarity looking down at herself in shock.

The ball was a small bomb, and it had just exploded, sending Rarity’s front legs flying in different directions in many pieces.
Geysers of blood spurted from Rarity’s shoulders, running down her sides and pooling rapidly on the ground.
All colour faded from Rarity’s eyes as she fell limp in the puddle of her own blood.
The silence was almost immediately cut by Fluttershy’s screams, as she was in the crossfire of the explosion, and was now covered in Rarity’s blood, small pieces of flesh clinging to her face and legs.

The other ponies slowly followed suit with screaming and being sent into a wild panic. Pinkie’s mane deflated and hung flat against her head as she stared at Rarity’s corpse in shock. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were hitting their hooves against the grid wall, trying to break out.
Fluttershy was frantically trying to wipe the mess off of her face, and Twilight just stared… But not at Rarity… She stared at Cadence, her eyes were as wide as dinner plates, her pupils were small pinpricks. Tears flowed like rapid rivers down her face, but the look of shock overpowered the sadness fighting through to make itself known.

Cadence simply stood there, looking back at Twilight through the window, her ears were folded back, her eyes were glossy, she clearly didn't want the games to continue, but twilight knew, Cadence couldnt stop it, even if she wanted to...

Cadence couldn't stop the games, she could only oversee them and guide the remaining ponies on what to do.
Everyone’s shrieks were cut off as they heard a loud wiring noise. Looking toward Rarity’s body.
The panel underneath her body opened up like a trapdoor, causing the corpse to ragdoll-fall into the hole below. The panels that had blood on them, turned over, revealing the same panel on the other side, making the floor clean again. Fluttershy frantically jumped out of the way so she did not trip over the turning panels.
It was almost like Rarity was never there.

“Twilight… I don't think this is going to be as fun as we think…”
Pinkie says, walking up to the purple alicorn, holding back her own tears, but Twilight hugged her tightly, letting the pink pony sob into her shoulder.

Soon enough… It was time for the next game…